State Closes Troubled Largo Work Release Center

Inmates were moved out of the Goodwill Industries run Largo work release center at 4 a.m. Friday after state officials found "multiple violations of department policy."

By Steve Bousquet and Kameel StanleyTampa Bay Times

Inmates were moved out of the Goodwill Industries run Largo work release center at 4 a.m. Friday after state officials found "multiple violations of department policy."

The center is the state's largest work release facility and has been the source of complaints by residents.

Gov. Rick Scott's office released a statement from Corrections Secretary Mike Crews that cited "multiple violations of department policy" by Goodwill Industries after an 11-day surveillance investigation by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.

"The most egregious of these was an inaccurate inmate count conducted by Goodwill which allowed an escaped inmate to go undetected for almost three hours, as well as continuing to allow inmates to walk to a nearby employer after such activity had been prohibited," Crews' statement said.

Scott said he supported the decision and said he appreciated the work of Sheriff Bob Gualtieri and state Sen. Jack Latvala, R-Clearwater, on the issue.

For security reasons, prison officials do not discuss details of movement of inmates early Friday.

Tampa Bay officials called for the state to shut down the center on Thursday, after an undercover operation by Gualtieri's office exposed more issues at the facility.

Gualtieri sent deputies to observe the center for 11 days earlier this month after repeated complaints from nearby residents. He said his deputies saw several instances of what he called "suspicious activity," including:

• Inmates stashing banned items such as lighters and mobile phones in bushes or other hiding places before returning to or leaving the facility.

• An inmate who rode a bicycle to 58th Street and Roosevelt Boulevard to conduct what Gualtieri called "a hand-to-hand transaction." Investigators also saw two inmates go to a nearby motel known for drug activity.

• And in one case that Gualtieri said particularly galled him, a detective was approached by a Goodwill employee who said the detective's undercover car matched the description of a vehicle used to help an inmate escape the previous night. Yet Goodwill had not reported the escape to authorities, as required by its contract with the state.

The Largo Residential Re-Entry Center, at U.S. 19 near Whitney Road, has been a sore point for years among neighbors, partly because of the large number of inmates who are allowed to walk unsupervised from the center to jobs in the community.

But the controversy intensified in September after an inmate escaped — leaving the center several hours before his restaurant shift began — and killed two men in St. Petersburg. Less than three months later, another inmate raped a 17-year-old Japanese exchange student near the center. That inmate had left for work nearly an hour before his shift began at a business just a five-minute walk away.

Investigations by the Tampa Bay Times have shown a pattern of lax supervision at the center and that, contrary to popular belief, violent inmates were often housed there and at other state work release facilities. After the Times published a story in February, the state stopped allowing murderers into the program. Sunday's Times, an in-depth investigation detailed more problems, including lax discipline, improper sexual activity by inmates and Goodwill's failure to verify inmates were working.

"I really thought that Goodwill would get a handle on the situation and get that place straightened out," said Latvala, who met with residents in May.

The morning after that meeting, Latvala met with Gualtieri.

He said after getting the sheriff's report this week, it became clear Goodwill had to go.